Oilers 7, Rangers 5
EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to five games on Friday night with a 7-5 win over the New York Rangers.
Left winger Lauri Korpikoski had a hat trick and left winger Taylor Hall scored twice in the third period, including the winner with 1:33 left, to help Edmonton sweep its five-game homestand and move to within a point of the Pacific Division playoff cutline.
The Oilers gassed 3-1 and 5-3 leads and looked like they might let this one get away, but just 13 seconds after Rangers winger Rick Nash made it 5-5 at 18:14, Hall sealed the victory.
The Rangers, 2-5-1 in their eight games before visiting Edmonton, fell to 18-9-3 and the Oilers improved to 13-15-2.
The Oilers went right to work in the first period, with Korpikoski scoring on the power play at 6:35 for a 1-0 lead.
The Rangers tied it at 12:16 on a goal from center Mats Zuccarello. The Oilers answered in a hurry, going up 2-1 on Korpikoski's second goal of the night at 15:47 and 3-1 on right winger Ted Purcell's sixth of the season at 16:57.
But a game the Oilers seemed to have well in hand after 20 minutes got away in the second period. Left winger Chris Kreider closed the gap to 3-2 just 53 seconds after the puck dropped and center Derick Brassard tied it at 8:44.
Even though the Oilers were outshooting the Rangers 30-18, it was 3-3 after 40 minutes thanks to some solid work in goal from New York's Henrik Lundqvist.
But the Oilers got to him in the third period, with goals from Hall and defenseman Darnell Nurse, prompting Rangers coach Alain Vigneault to give Lundqvist the hook for only the second time this season.
Brassard's second goal of the night with 13 minutes left made for an interesting finish.
Korpikoski added the empty-netter to get the hat trick.
NOTES: Friday night was Rangers coach Alain Vigneault's 1,000th game in the NHL. He went 538-350-35-77 in the first 999. ... The Rangers held their opponents to two or fewer goals in 19 of their first 29 games. ... The Oilers raised a banner to the roof at Rexall place to honor former coach and GM Glen Sather, who guided the team to five Stanley Cups in seven years from 1984-90... Former New York G Cam Talbot didn't get the start against his old team. Not with G Anders Nilsson riding a four-game win streak for Edmonton. ... The Oilers recalled D Nikita Nikitin from AHL Bakersfield after burying him and his $4.5 million contract in the minors all year. ... Oilers C Leon Draisaitl is still averaging more than a point per game this year (22 points in his first 19 games). ... Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist is 35-12-3 with a .938 save percentage in the last calendar year.